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‘Aankh maarta hai’: Rijiju mocks Rahul for 2018 hug & wink in Lok Sabha, gets Priyanka's retort
“I've never seen such a leader, who hugs the PM, then goes back to his seat and winks at fellow party MPs,” Rijiju said. Rahul, Modi were not present.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's hug and wink made it into the debate in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday as parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju mentioned past instances to claim the Leader of Opposition is “not serious” in his conduct.
“I have never seen such a leader, who comes and hugs the prime minister, then goes back to his seat and winks at fellow party MPs ('aankh maarta hai'),” Rijiju said, speaking in Hindi. Rahul was not present, nor was PM Narendra Modi.
Rijiju was speaking against the motion of no-confidence brought in by the Congress-led Opposition against Speaker Om Birla for his allegedly biased conduct.
The hug-and-wink instance he mentioned is from 2018, when Rahul Gandhi said he intended to “clean your hearts of hatred, and ignite love instead”, as he pitched the Congress as a "party for every Indian” and the BJP as a “divisive force”. At the time, the gesture was criticised by the BJP as "childish", and was later mocked by PM Modi too, who had awkwardly hugged Rahul back and shaken his hand.
Watch below: Video of the hug moment
Priyanka's jibe over Nehru mention
Rahul's sister and fellow MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reacted after Rijiju ended his speech. She said: “They are unable to digest what the Leader of Opposition (Rahul) says, because in the last 12 years (of Narendra Modi as PM), he is the only one who has refused to bow.”
She added, “They (BJP-led NDA government's MPs) say I keep smiling when they speak. I smile, I laugh because they are suddenly praising Jawaharlal Nehru — whom they otherwise abuse — for his speech when a motion was brought against the LS Speaker of the time (in the 1950s).”
Rijiju had asked the Congress-led Opposition to pay “remember at least” what Nehru said — referring to his defence of the then Speaker GV Mavalankar.
Couplet about Mughal ruler
There was some poetry too. Rijiju ended his speech with a couplet by Muztar Khairabadi, written in the context of the last Mughal ruler Bahadurshah Zafar before the British took over Delhi's throne: “Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hun, na kisi ke dil ka qaraar hun; jo kisi ke kaam na aa sake, main woh ek musht-e-ghubar hun.”
A rough translation shows it was written in a fatalist tone: “I'm not the light of any eye, for me none has a care; no use to anyone am I, a fistful of dust merely scattered.”
Earlier, responding to Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi's assertion that Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to speak in the House, Rijiju said, “That day I was upset for the fact that the Opposition MP said that 'I do not need permission from anyone to speak in Parliament'. This is on record.”
Taking further jibes at the Opposition MPs amid sloganeering, Rijiju said he has "no cure" if someone believes themselves to be “above the speaker” in the House. Accusing the Congress MPs in trying to "decide on who will sit on the chair", Rijiju added, “It is so unfortunate that they want to steal this right (from ruling party).”
As the debate on the no-confidence motion started, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi took a swipe at Rijiju: “In future when there will be research on parliamentary records and transcripts are looked at, statistics will tell that Kiren Rijiju was the parliamentary affairs minister, who interrupted the Opposition the most.”
Coming to Rijiju's defence, Union home minister Amit Shah asserted that such interruptions are only necessary when someone doesn't adhere to the parliamentary rules.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will speak on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha during the discussion on the motion seeking the removal of Om Birla as Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
Birla has been staying away and, as there is no deputy speaker since 2019, other senior members from the NDA have been sitting in the chair to run the Lok Sabha.
What's the nub of the Oppn move?
At the heart of this conflict over Birla's conduct, which has since widened, is Rahul Gandhi’s flashing of an unpublished memoir, ‘Four Stars of Destiny’ by former Indian Army chief General MM Naravane.
During the first half of the budget session, Rahul Gandhi cited excerpts from the manuscript, claiming they "exposed" PM Modi’s failure to take responsibility during the 2020 border conflict with China.
The government argued that referencing a manuscript not yet cleared by the Ministry of Defence was illegal and violated parliamentary rules. Defence minister Rajnath Singh argued that the purported contents were “incorrect”, and the writer (Naravane) could have gone to court if he did not agree with the MoD holding back its approval since at least 2023.
